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The Slaying of Ruth Helene Case · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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Speaker 1: Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
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Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. On Tuesday, March twenty fifth, nineteen
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Speaker 1: eighty six, and op ed ran in Austin, Texas's newspaper,
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Speaker 1: encouraging the capital city to demolish the Booker T. Washington
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Speaker 1: housing project on the East Side. It had been two
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Speaker 1: years since federal authorities had declared the Booker T. Washington
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Speaker 1: project condemned and ordered that residents vacate the premises, but
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Speaker 1: nothing had been done with the structures. Bureaucrats in Washington,
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Speaker 1: d C. The Department of Housing and Urban Development were
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Speaker 1: said to have promised funding to improve the remaining units
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Speaker 1: deemed livable, though they'd never come through, either as a
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Speaker 1: result of red tape or the projects themselves simply forgotten.
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Speaker 1: About about thirty percent of the housing project was still
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Speaker 1: fit for habitation, but fifty one vacant buildings and two
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Speaker 1: hundred ninety four apartment units were dilapidated and potentially dangerous structurally.
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Speaker 1: On many of the condemned buildings, boards once covering windows
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Speaker 1: and doorways had been removed, and the condition of them
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Speaker 1: were dangerous for the neighborhood kids exploring, but it was
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Speaker 1: the crime surrounding the housing that was the primary concern
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Speaker 1: of the Austin American Statesman. Peace Overall, crime in Austin
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Speaker 1: had increased substantially in nineteen eighty five over the couple
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Speaker 1: years before, up by about thirteen per cent, and major
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Speaker 1: crimes were up around twenty percent. The number of reported
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Speaker 1: rapes had risen a staggering forty one percent, partially due
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Speaker 1: to the fact that the crime had undergone a change
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Speaker 1: in how it was legally defined in the state, a
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Speaker 1: long overdue change that reclassified all sexual assaults as rape.
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Speaker 1: As the result of several social and economic factors, Austin's
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Speaker 1: East Side was also plagued by drugs, and the abandoned
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Speaker 1: Booker t Washington housing projects provided big and small time
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Speaker 1: dealers alike with ample cover while conducting business. All of
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Speaker 1: these problems, however, had been long pushed aside, if not
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Speaker 1: forgotten about, by local leaders until a shocking and abhorrent
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Speaker 1: crime took place in the area, which began with the
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Speaker 1: disappearance of a woman named Ruth Case on December sixteenth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five. Ruth Helene Olsen was born to parents
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Speaker 1: Myrtle and Robert in Middletown, Connecticut. After high school, Ruth
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Speaker 1: attended Baptist Hospital School in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she studied
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Speaker 1: to be a registered nurse. During the nineteen seventy four
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five school year, she attended a meeting of
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Speaker 1: Baptist students in Nashville, where she was representing her school's
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Speaker 1: Baptist student union. There, Ruth met a man named William
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Speaker 1: Case who went by his middle name Allan. Allan was
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Speaker 1: there representing his school's Baptist student union as well. He
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Speaker 1: lived in Knoxville and went to the University of Tennessee there,
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Speaker 1: but he and Ruth had never crossed paths. When they
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Speaker 1: did in Nashville, Allan asked her on a date all
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Speaker 1: but immediately, but Ruth couldn't. She was already in a
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Speaker 1: serious relationship, but she was interested in hooking him up
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Speaker 1: with her. Alan wasn't really interested in that. He wanted
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Speaker 1: a date with Ruth and is holding out. Paid off
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Speaker 1: A couple weeks after they met, Ruth's relationship ended and
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Speaker 1: she agreed to go grab a bite to eat with Alan.
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Speaker 1: As a college boy, he didn't have a lot of money,
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Speaker 1: but was intent on showing her a good time. Thinking
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Speaker 1: she'd probably never see Alan again, Ruth decided to order
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Speaker 1: the most expensive thing on the menu, something with lobster.
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Speaker 1: Alan didn't flinch. He was determined to make a good impression.
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Speaker 1: He did. Apparently a hopeless romantic type, the introverted Allan
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Speaker 1: wooed the outgoing Ruth with poetry, flowers, and gifts. After
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Speaker 1: dating for some time, they were married on April sixteenth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven. The following year, they moved to Austin, Texas,
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Speaker 1: when Alan accepted a job with the state at the
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Speaker 1: Texas Rehabilitation Commission. Ruth went to work for Holy Cross,
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Speaker 1: a historic Austin hospital that was the first to allow
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Speaker 1: black physicians to practice alongside their white colleagues with equal privileges.
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Speaker 1: Ruth and Alan easily settled into life in the Texas
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Speaker 1: capital city, a place that at the time was about
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Speaker 1: the right size and attitude for those seeking a life
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Speaker 1: in the city without losing the friendliness of folks who
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Speaker 1: remembered what it was like in Austin's slower days. In
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Speaker 1: the next few years, Ruth and Alan made plenty of friends.
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Speaker 1: She was especially good in a crowd. Her friendly demeanor aside,
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Speaker 1: Ruth was a master at telling amusing anecdotes and jokes.
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Speaker 1: She liked comedy and had even considered going up on
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Speaker 1: stage during amateur night at a local comedy club, but
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Speaker 1: apparently talked herself out of it in the long run.
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Speaker 1: During the early years in Austin, Ruth and Allan welcomed
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Speaker 1: two daughters into the world, Emily and Julie. Her dream
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Speaker 1: of becoming a radio city roquet gave way to the
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Speaker 1: responsibility of having children and an important career in nursing.
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Speaker 1: The family was involved with their church, the Congregational Church
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Speaker 1: of Austin, where Ruth sang soprano in the choir, taught
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Speaker 1: Sunday school alongside her husband, and was active in church
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Speaker 1: fundraising activities. Although she had moved up the latter quickly
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Speaker 1: at Holy Cross Hospital and was now a three to
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Speaker 1: eleven PM shift supervisor, Ruth grew disillusioned with nursing, but
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Speaker 1: not because of the work itself that she found rewarding. Instead,
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Speaker 1: she simply wanted to be home more often, and particularly
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Speaker 1: on holidays, when her chosen profession was at its busiest.
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Speaker 1: Her and Allan's oldest was born on Christmas Eve, so
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Speaker 1: it was especially important to Ruth that she'd be able
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Speaker 1: to spend that time with her daughter. In nineteen eighty five,
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Speaker 1: Ruth enrolled full time at Austin Community College and set
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Speaker 1: her sights on becoming a veterinarian, another dream she had.
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Speaker 1: As the year turned, she continued to do well. Ruth's husband,
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Speaker 1: Alan told us she'd taken two or three classes and
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Speaker 1: had a four point zero average. She was brilliant, he continued.
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Speaker 1: She would take math and science courses and she'd ace
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Speaker 1: them all, so she would have made a good vet.
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Speaker 1: She was a good nurse. The lives Allan, Ruth, and
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Speaker 1: their two girls shared together was later described by police
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Speaker 1: as stable, though it was much more than that. Although
7:49
Speaker 1: managing her career and family life had overwhelmed her at times,
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Speaker 1: she was finally on the right track to a new
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Speaker 1: career that would allow her to both live out a
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Speaker 1: dream of hers and have more time with her husband
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Speaker 1: and children. In nineteen eighty six, Ruth and Alan Case
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Speaker 1: lived in Hyde Park, a neighborhood that at the time
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Speaker 1: was a pretty even mix between longtime locals and college
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Speaker 1: students living off but close to campus. Though the area
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Speaker 1: had been the stomping grounds of the Hyde Park rapist
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Speaker 1: and home to several opportunistic murderers in the prior several years.
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Speaker 1: Hyde Park was considered a relatively safe place by its residents,
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Speaker 1: where Ruth was attending school. In contrast, was an area
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Speaker 1: well known for crime. Austin Community College's Ridgeview Campus was
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Speaker 1: located on the city's east side, and Ruth even knew
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Speaker 1: of the dangers that surrounded the area, having commented to
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Speaker 1: Allen that it was on the rough side of town,
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Speaker 1: but she was happy with her classes and instructors, she
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Speaker 1: had decided it was worth the risk. Wednesday, January fifteenth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six started out just like any other day
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Speaker 1: for the Case family. Ruth fussed Alan as he started
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Speaker 1: to step out the door. He'd forgotten to give her
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Speaker 1: a kiss. Alan walked to Ruth, planted a kiss, and
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Speaker 1: told her he loved her before heading out the door
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Speaker 1: with four year old Emily, who he was taking to daycare.
9:36
Speaker 1: Before heading into work, Ruth finished getting six year old
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Speaker 1: Julie ready for school and then headed out herself. She
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Speaker 1: dropped her daughter off at school and headed to class
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Speaker 1: at Austin Community College's Ridgeview Campus in East Austin. Later
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Speaker 1: that day, at about five point fifty pm, Alan received
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Speaker 1: a call from Julie's school. Ruth hadn't picked her up
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Speaker 1: at the end of the day. Something was obviously wrong.
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Speaker 1: Ruth was about as punctual and reliable as they come.
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Speaker 1: You could set your watch buyer, and if by chance
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Speaker 1: she was going to be late, she generally made a
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Speaker 1: phone call to let someone know. Still, Alan's mind refused
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Speaker 1: to drift into imagining worst possible scenarios. Perhaps he thought
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Speaker 1: Ruth was having car trouble and stranded somewhere. In a
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Speaker 1: time before cell phones, alerting someone wasn't an instantaneous thing
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Speaker 1: and sometimes took a while. Alan rushed to pick up
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Speaker 1: the kids, hoping to get back home to answer his
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Speaker 1: wife's call for help. When they arrived back at the house,
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Speaker 1: he phoned his and Ruth's pastor at Congregational Church of Austin,
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Speaker 1: John Towery, who promptly made his way over. Pastor Towery
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Speaker 1: and Alan raced to the community college campus about three
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Speaker 1: and ns and half miles to the south, where they
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Speaker 1: discovered Ruth's brown nineteen seventy eight Ford Fairmont parked on
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Speaker 1: a street nearby. The car was locked and there were
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Speaker 1: no signs of a disturbance or struggle anywhere around it.
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Speaker 1: Everything appeared fine normal. They quickly located a security guard
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Speaker 1: who told them he hadn't seen Ruth, and if he had,
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Speaker 1: she'd have been mixed in with the hundreds of other
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Speaker 1: students he'd seen go to and from their vehicles that day.
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Speaker 1: Ruth's car, he told them, had been parked in that
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Speaker 1: spot all day. Alan and Pastor Towery headed back to
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Speaker 1: the Case home, holding back his panic for the good
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Speaker 1: of the children. Alan packed them up in the car
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Speaker 1: and took them for a quick meal. When they arrived
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Speaker 1: back home, it was eight o'clock. Alan began calling anyone
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Speaker 1: and everyone who knew Ruth, her friends, fellow churchgoers, fellow students,
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Speaker 1: and even the neighbor, but no one had seen her.
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Speaker 1: His last call was to the Austin Police Department. Allan
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Speaker 1: reported his wife, thirty year old Ruth Helene Case missing.
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Speaker 1: Police learned the location of Ruth's car immediately. Of course,
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Speaker 1: it was parked on the twenty nine hundred block of
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Speaker 1: Glen Oak Drive, not one hundred yards from the class
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Speaker 1: she attended, and not far from the Booker T Washington
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Speaker 1: low income housing project, a majority of which had been
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Speaker 1: condemned and set for demolition. Police learned that after attending
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Speaker 1: her chemistry lab class, Ruth planned to drive to a
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Speaker 1: bakery near her and Alan's house for lunch and then
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Speaker 1: return home for an afternoon nap before going to pick
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Speaker 1: up the kids. She never carried out those plans. The
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Speaker 1: last confirmed sighting of Ruth case was as she left
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Speaker 1: her chemistry class at about eleven thirty three a m.
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Speaker 1: The day after she was reported missing. On Thursday, January sixteenth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, the Austin Police Special Missions Team searched
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Speaker 1: the housing project. They reportedly found nothing, no Ruth case,
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Speaker 1: and no clues as to her whereabouts. Sergeant Ed Belagia
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Speaker 1: was worried. The vacant properties were a known gathering place
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Speaker 1: for what they referred to as unsavory characters, and the
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Speaker 1: area crime rate was through the roof. It doesn't look
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Speaker 1: good at all, the homicide detective told a reporter for
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Speaker 1: the Austin American Statesman, adding that they didn't have a
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Speaker 1: lot to go on. At some point, a student came
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Speaker 1: forward and said they might have seen Ruth get into
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Speaker 1: a car, but they couldn't be sure it was her.
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Speaker 1: A week later, on Wednesday, January twenty second, friends of
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Speaker 1: the Case family passed out flyers at Austin Community College's
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Speaker 1: Ridgeview campus and the surrounding neighborhood. The flyers featured Ruth's
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Speaker 1: photograph and description. She stood five feet six inches tall
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Speaker 1: and weighed about one hundred and thirty five pounds, it read,
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Speaker 1: adding that she had short, curly brown hair. A description
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Speaker 1: of the clothing Ruth was last seen wearing apparently was
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Speaker 1: not available. By this point, the police had used a
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Speaker 1: helicopter to search the area but had come up empty handed. Again,
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Speaker 1: through the media, they asked that anyone who was in
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Speaker 1: the area around the time Ruth was last seen come forward.
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Speaker 1: The cops thought it was likely someone saw something, no
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Speaker 1: matter how insignificant they might think it was, since there
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Speaker 1: were so many folks around there at that time. Meanwhile,
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Speaker 1: Alan Case fought off despondency. It was a nightmare walking
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Speaker 1: the tightrope between hope and hopelessness, and he'd begun to
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Speaker 1: realize how much everyday life had cast to take Ruth
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Speaker 1: for granted, all the things he couldn't take back, like
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Speaker 1: the time he worked too much instead of coming home
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Speaker 1: to spend the time with his family, were getting to
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Speaker 1: him every little thing, no matter what thoughts came to mind.
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Speaker 1: Alan knew his wife hadn't left on her own, and
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Speaker 1: only scenarios that he was loath to imagine remained. Still,
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Speaker 1: he had the children to think about, making it easier
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Speaker 1: for him, He told reporters to keep it together. The
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Speaker 1: alternative would do them or the situation little good, he knew.
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Speaker 1: Alan took a leave of absence from his job to
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Speaker 1: properly care for his kids and look for Ruth at
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Speaker 1: the same time. The next day, Thursday, January the twenty third,
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Speaker 1: a woman who lived across the street from the Austin
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Speaker 1: Community College Ridgeview campus reported that she heard two women
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Speaker 1: in an argument near her house around the time Ruth vanished.
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Speaker 1: The woman, who was in her backyard, said the disagreement
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Speaker 1: happened on the other side of her privacy fence, so
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Speaker 1: she couldn't see any faces. Ruth's car had been parked
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Speaker 1: not too far from the woman's home. If the lack
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Speaker 1: of media coverage for a nearly two month period following
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Speaker 1: was any indication the disappearance of Ruth case had gone
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Speaker 1: cold almost as quickly as it had occurred, but big
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Speaker 1: news finally came in mid March. On Friday, March fourteenth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, Ruth's purse was discovered in a field
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Speaker 1: off Webberville Road and Go Valley Avenue. The heavily wooded
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Speaker 1: field was just across the street from Austin Community College's
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Speaker 1: Ridgeview campus and about a block east of where Ruth's
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Speaker 1: car was found. Though the entire contents of the purse
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Speaker 1: have never been publicly expounded upon, it is known that
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Speaker 1: she was carrying only a dollar fifty in cash when
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Speaker 1: she left the house the day she vanished. It was
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Speaker 1: such a small amount that police doubted Ruth was missing
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Speaker 1: as the result of a robbery murder. An item later
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Speaker 1: found would back up that notion. They did find identification
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Speaker 1: inside the purse. Also missing were Ruth's checkbook and credit card,
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Speaker 1: neither of which had been used since her disappearance. This discovery,
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Speaker 1: Sergeant Ed Balagia told a reporter for the Austin American Statesman,
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Speaker 1: virtually ruled out the possibility that Ruth left of her
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Speaker 1: own free will, something her loved ones already knew. The
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Speaker 1: purse was the first item belonging to the missing woman
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Speaker 1: that was ever found, and the last discovery of its kind.
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Speaker 1: Less than a week later, however, came the case's most
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Speaker 1: important and tragic finding. On the afternoon of Thursday, March twentieth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, Austin Housing Authority worker Delbert Whitfield entered
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Speaker 1: a vacant unit at the Booker T. Washington Housing Project
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Speaker 1: looking for plumbing parts. The front door of the unit
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Speaker 1: was locked, but the bottom panel had been kicked out,
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Speaker 1: so Whitfield crawled through. Immediately upon entering, the man noticed
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Speaker 1: a strong odor. He climbed up to the second story
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Speaker 1: of the unit, and there, underneath a screen door and
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Speaker 1: a closet door, were mostly skeletonized human remains. Whitfield quickly
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Speaker 1: notified the Austin police. The body was later identified as
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Speaker 1: belonging to thirty year old missing woman Ruth Case. She
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Speaker 1: still wore her wedding ring, the only thing of value
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Speaker 1: she carried on the day she went missing. At autopsy,
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Speaker 1: it was determined she had been stabbed in the back
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Speaker 1: a total of eight times and died shortly after her disappearance.
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Speaker 1: Ruth had also been raped. Immediately, the department's Special Missions
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Speaker 1: team came under scrutiny for failing to find Ruth's body
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Speaker 1: when they searched the Booker T. Washington Housing project the
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Speaker 1: day following her disappearance. At first, Assistant Police Chief Ray
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Speaker 1: Sanders entertained the idea that the body wasn't there when
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Speaker 1: Special Missions searched, and said he intended to find out
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Speaker 1: if it was that or if they'd simply missed it.
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Speaker 1: Commander of Homicide, Lieutenant James Baker commented that the team
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Speaker 1: did not enter any units that were boarded up or locked,
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Speaker 1: but Sergeant Ed Balagia pointed out that the back door
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Speaker 1: was unlocked. Anybody could have walked in. He said. Whatever
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Speaker 1: the case, records of the search were not kept, so
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Speaker 1: finding the answer, Special Missions Team supervisor Captain Bobby Shirley
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Speaker 1: said would be difficult. The officers involved should have written
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Speaker 1: supplemental reports, Shirley remarked, adding that an internal investigation was underway. Eventually,
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Speaker 1: they determined that Ruth's body had been in the building
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Speaker 1: since the day she disappeared. The Special Missions team received
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Speaker 1: a verbal reprimand and new procedures to adhere to, including
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Speaker 1: mandatory record keeping during the course of such searches, from
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Speaker 1: op eds to letters to the editor. The discovery of
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Speaker 1: Ruth Case's body in the Booker T. Washington project began
20:45
Speaker 1: a heated discussion on what should be done with the
20:47
Speaker 1: buildings structures that were supposed to have been demolished but
20:52
Speaker 1: were instead rotting in bureaucratic hell. Federal engineers soon conducted
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Speaker 1: building by building inspections to determine if any could be salvaged.
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Speaker 1: Foundation issues had led to plumbing, sewage and rodent problems
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Speaker 1: in the housing project, which was also having foundation and
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Speaker 1: other structural issues, began considering moving out of the Ridgeview
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Speaker 1: campus as well. Ruth Case's disappearance and murder appears to
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Speaker 1: have expedited this decision. Students were now scared to come
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Speaker 1: to class, particularly at night. Campus security was beefed up
21:31
Speaker 1: and guards began accompanying loan students to their vehicles. The police,
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Speaker 1: it appears, remained baffled the trail ended at the housing project.
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Speaker 1: Leeds were getting fewer and farther apart. They had a
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Speaker 1: total of four suspects, they told the press, One of them,
21:52
Speaker 1: presumably the victim's husband, Alan Case, had been cleared as
21:57
Speaker 1: he was at work when Ruth disappeared. Delbert Whitney, the
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Speaker 1: Austin Housing Authority worker who found. Ruth's body was likely
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Speaker 1: also interrogated and perhaps cleared. It's unknown who the other
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Speaker 1: two suspects are. Perhaps one was a man who Ruth
22:16
Speaker 1: met when she took some time for herself out of
22:18
Speaker 1: town not long before she was raped and murdered. Feeling overwhelmed,
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Speaker 1: her daughter Emily told us Ruth spent some time at
22:27
Speaker 1: the Prude Ranch in Fort Davis, Texas, where folks sometimes
22:31
Speaker 1: go to get away from it all for a reset
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Speaker 1: of sorts. There, she had told her best friend Linnell,
22:39
Speaker 1: a man she described as a creepy guy, wouldn't leave
22:42
Speaker 1: her alone. He told Ruth he was angry her husband
22:46
Speaker 1: and kids hadn't accompanied her to the ranch. What was
22:50
Speaker 1: she doing there alone, the man wondered. Ruth described this
22:55
Speaker 1: man's behavior as stalking to her friend and told her
22:59
Speaker 1: she was just to be away from him. Little else
23:03
Speaker 1: is known about this man. At some point, a psychological
23:08
Speaker 1: profile of the killer was created. Though the police released
23:12
Speaker 1: few details of the report, they said it indicated that
23:16
Speaker 1: the perpetrator was most likely familiar with the area and
23:20
Speaker 1: possibly lived nearby. Though it seems obvious that the crime
23:25
Speaker 1: was motivated by rape, Sergeant Bilagia insisted they had no motive,
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Speaker 1: let alone a viable suspect. The future of the case,
23:34
Speaker 1: he believed, was contingent upon someone coming forward. There were
23:39
Speaker 1: too many people around that day. The campus was too
23:42
Speaker 1: active for no one to have seen a thing, he said. Elsewhere,
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Speaker 1: Allan and his children were devastated. Until she was found.
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Speaker 1: I held out a slight hope that she was still alive,
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Speaker 1: Alan commented, Now I have to face the irreversibility of debt.
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Speaker 1: The kids are having a hard time accepting it. They
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Speaker 1: want to go up to heaven to see their mommy.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes they ask when is she coming back. The Austin
24:10
Speaker 1: American Statesman ran anniversary articles about the disappearance, rape, and
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Speaker 1: murder of Ruth case, but those stopped after a couple years.
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Speaker 1: Newspaper stories end at nineteen eighty eight, and internet searches
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Speaker 1: show little information about the case. But Alan and the
24:28
Speaker 1: children have never forgotten and they long for justice. If
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Speaker 1: you have any information about the murder of Ruth Helene case,
24:40
Speaker 1: please contact the Austin Police Department Homicide tip line at
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Speaker 1: five one, two, four, seven, seven, three, five eight eight.
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Speaker 1: Special thanks to Alan and Emily for speaking with us.
24:56
Speaker 1: If you'd like to join con Cold's mission to shine
24:58
Speaker 1: a light on unsought homicides and missing persons cases. Get
25:02
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25:06
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25:11
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25:22
Speaker 1: we appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all.